Aorto-left ventricular tunnel with anomalous origin of right coronary artery and bicuspid aortic valve: a case report

BACKGROUND: Aorto-left ventricular tunnel (ALVT) is a rare congenital extracardiac channel that connects the ascending aorta to the left ventricle. To our knowledge, no case has been thus far reported as ALVT with both anomalous origin of right coronary artery (AORCA) and bicuspid aortic valve (BAV). CASE PRESENTATION: We reported a case of a 5-year-old female diagnosed as ALVT with accompanying AORCA and BAV which had been previously misdiagnosed as aortic regurgitation (AR) triggered by BAV. Additionally, a special modality of ALVT was confirmed in this case during the surgery in which the tunnel was formed by the separation between the roots of two aortic leaflets during the diastolic period. CONCLUSIONS: ALVT with both AORCA and BAV is clinically uncommon and the aberrant tunnel in ALVT can be formed by the gap between the roots of two aortic leaflets. Besides, ALVT with BAV might easily lead to an inaccurate diagnose as aortic regurgitation caused by BAV. Cardiac surgeons should be alerted for differential diagnosis of ALVT with BAV and isolated bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) causing aortic regurgitation (AR).